The ruckus over Bt Brinjal

The GEAC approval was not unanimous. Supreme Court appointee to the committee Pushpa Bhargava had alleged that all necessary tests had not been carried out before the committee gave its approval.

GEAC had kept its test reports under wraps, saying developers of the seed -- US firm Monsanto and Indian firm Mahyco -- wanted the information kept confidential in the 'research and development stages'.

Image: A man dressed as Mahatma Gandhi joins activists of Greenpeace and Jana Vignana Vedika, people's forum for science, in a nationwide one-day fast against the commercialization of BT Brinjal, coinciding with the death anniversary of Gandhi, in Hyderabad on January 30, 2010.